Sous Vide Cooking Will Change Your Life, here’s how to get started

If roasting, sauteing, or even microwaving your dinner has you down, it’s time to try sous vide. A method employed by triple Michelin star chefs, as well as airlines doling out in-flight meals, sous vide, which translates from French to “under vacuum” is a simple cooking method to preserve food’s tenderness and quality. But what does sous vide cooking look like?

“Sous vide is the process of sealing a product, be it steak or carrots, in a protective barrier, most often plastic, vacuuming out the air and cooking it in a water bath at a very precise temperature,” explains Chef Sean Wheaton, vice president of culinary at Cuisine Solutions, which sells gourmet sous vide meals for home and restaurant use. Unlike boiling, poaching, or steaming an ingredient, with sous vide cooking, the food isn’t touching the water, so it isn’t losing flavor during the cooking process. “A poached chicken not only gets you a delicately cooked bird, but when done properly, a beautifully perfumed broth,” Wheaton said. “With sous vide, all those chicken flavors are locked in the bag and therefore in the chicken.”